West
Firm behind climate lawsuits faces DOJ referral after court finds ‘misconduct bordering on criminal’
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A federal judge’s extraordinary decision to refer Hagens Berman to the Department of Justice for possible unlawful conduct escalated to an appeals court this week, marking one of the toughest challenges yet for a high-profile law firm known, in part, for its aggressive climate litigation.
The referral came as part of a lawsuit that Hagens Berman brought related to a separate topic, alleged drug-related injuries, and involved Judge Paul Diamond taking the rare step of asking the DOJ to review whether Hagens Berman acted unlawfully.
Diamond noted in an order on Dec. 2 that a court-appointed lawyer, known as a special master, found Hagens Berman engaged in a yearslong effort to bring “fraudulent” complaints in the case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Hagens Berman also obstructed discovery and “doctored evidence,” the special master found. The order noted that the firm’s apparent “misconduct bordering on criminal” warranted the DOJ’s involvement.
TOP ENERGY GROUP CALLS FOR PROBE INTO SECRETIVE ‘NATIONAL LAWFARE CAMPAIGN’ TO INFLUENCE JUDGES ON CLIMATE
The Department of Justice headquarters on Feb. 19, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer)
Hagens Berman has aggressively pushed back on the allegations and turned to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit for relief. The firm accused the judge of bias, noting it had recently sought Diamond’s recusal from the case and claiming the judge could be retaliating.
“To rebut the charge in the court below would risk fomenting even greater ire of the district judge—ire that would be calamitous for petitioners’ clients,” Hagens Berman lawyers wrote. “To remain silent is to permit a baseless accusation leveled by an Article III judge no less, to hang like a dark, ignominious cloud over petitioners’ professional reputation.”
The clash comes as Hagens Berman continues positioning itself as a go-to firm for high-risk litigation, including environmental cases, even as its track record in that arena shows mixed results.
Last month, the firm filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Washington state homeowners against ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron and other fossil fuel companies. The suit alleges the companies sparked a rise in natural disasters that has driven up homeowners’ insurance premiums and claims they mounted a “coordinated and deliberate scheme to hide the truth about climate change and the effects of burning fossil fuels.”
Fuel prices at a Shell gas station in Burien, Washington, on Wednesday, March 9, 2022. (Chona Kasinger/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
But in addition to the DOJ referral, Hagens Berman has thus far struggled to secure clear victories or settlements in its climate cases and was dealt some legal blows in that realm in recent years.
Efforts to reach a Hagens Berman representative for comment were unsuccessful by press time.
In 2018, Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee, tossed out San Francisco and Oakland’s case, which was brought by Hagens Berman against fossil fuel companies over the alleged effects of climate change. Alsup called the scope of the cities’ claims in that case “breathtaking.”
“It would reach the sale of fossil fuels anywhere in the world, including all past and otherwise lawful sales, where the seller knew that the combustion of fossil fuels contributed to the phenomenon of global warming,” Alsup wrote.
The cities dropped Hagens Berman as their representation after a series of adverse decisions in that case.
CLIMATE LAWFARE CAMPAIGN DEALT BLOW IN SOUTH CAROLINA
People march as they take part in a strike to demand action on the global climate crisis on Sept. 20, 2019, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The law firm also lost in a similar case that same year in New York. In that dismissal, the late Judge John Keenan, a Reagan appointee, again found Hagens Berman’s lawsuit was far too expansive.
“The City has not sued under New York law for claims related to the production of fossil fuels in New York,” Keenan wrote. “The City brings claims for damages caused by global greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the combustion of Defendants’ fossil fuels, which are produced and used ‘worldwide.’”
The DOJ review, if upheld by the 3rd Circuit, could now overshadow the firm’s more recent endeavors and raises the stakes for the practice as it continues to take on ambitious cases.
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San Francisco, CA
Trump floats sending federal agents to San Francisco to tackle crime
President Donald Trump was once again floating the idea of sending federal agents to San Francisco to tackle crime.
It happened during a cabinet meeting on Thursday. The president praised Mayor Daniel Lurie’s efforts to lower crime but said he can do it more effectively.
“San Francisco, I know, they have a mayor who’s trying very hard. He’s a Democrat, but he’s trying very hard, but we can do it much more effectively, because he can’t do what we do. He can’t take people out from the city and bring them to back to the country, from where they came, where they were in prisons,” Trump said.
“He’s trying. He’s doing okay, but we could do much better. We could make it a lot safer than it is. San Francisco, a great city, was a great city, could quickly become a great city again. But, you know, they’re going very slowly,” he continued.
The president implied that the mayor needs federal help to battle crime, saying immigrants are responsible for the lawlessness. However, according to a 2025 study by researches at UCLA and Northwestern, arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants was not associated with reduced crime rates.
Gabriel Medina, executive director of La Raza Community Resource Center In San Francisco agrees.
“I think we need to make sure that our city does not also try to play this game of making up ideas about always associating crime with immigrants, when immigrants commit less crime, so that’s really bad,” Medina said.
In response to the president comments, the mayor released a statement that reads: “In San Francisco, crime is down 30%, encampments are at record lows, and our city is on the rise. Public safety is my number one priority, and we are going to stay laser focused on keeping our streets safe and clean.”
This isn’t the first time President Trump has mused with the idea of sending federal agents to the Bay Area; last October, agents were staged at a military base in Alameda, but Trump called off the plan after talking with Lurie and Bay Area tech leaders.
“We cannot normalize what this president is saying from San Francisco, that crime is associated with immigration. We need to stop conflating that,” Medina said.
Denver, CO
Jazz List 8 Players on Injury Report vs. Nuggets
The Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets are tipping off their second-to-last meeting of the 2025-26 season on Friday in the Mile High, where for the Jazz in particular, they’ll be dealing with several injuries headed into the matchup that’ll make them shorthanded once again.
Here’s what to expect on the injury front for both the Jazz and Nuggets on Friday night:
Utah Jazz Injury Report
OUT – Isaiah Collier (hamstring)
OUT – Keyonte George (hamstring)
OUT – Jaren Jackson Jr. (knee)
OUT – Walker Kessler (shoulder)
OUT – Lauri Markkanen (hip)
OUT – Jusuf Nurkic (nose)
PROBABLE – Kyle Filipowski (illness)
OUT – Blake Hinson (two-way)
It’s a lot of the same for the Jazz when looking back at some of their recent injury reports, but there’s also some good news to note as well.
Second-year big man Kyle Filipowski, specifically, is trending up to play in Denver after dealing with an illness against the Washington Wizards; an issue that kept him sidelined for one game and left the Jazz’s frontcourt notably shorthanded for what would be a double-digit loss.
During his post-All-Star stretch, Filipowski has been averaging 13.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists, along with 1.2 steals and 0.9 blocks through 11 games.
He’s slotted in primarily as the Jazz’s starting center since both Walker Kessler and Jusuf Nurkic have been out with season-ending injuries, and has shown some nice flashes throughout.
However, outside of getting Filipowski back in the mix, the Jazz will still be without second-year guard Isaiah Collier, who continues to deal with hamstring soreness, and will also continue to be down Keyonte George and Lauri Markkanen with their extended absences.
It remains to be seen if any of the latter two will be able to return at some point this season, but now with less than 10 games to go on the calendar before the offseason officially hits, the chances of either Markkanen or George coming back keep getting slimmer and slimmer.
For the extent either remains out, expect to see a good chunk of Ace Bailey being the primary scoring option as he has through his recent slate of games, along with an expanded role for their two-way and 10-day players down the bench who have gotten more minutes in recent weeks.
Denver Nuggets Injury Report
OUT – David Roddy (two-way)
OUT – KJ Simpson (two-way)
As for the Nuggets, their injury slate remains clean. The only names out will be a pair of their two way signings in David Roddy and KJ Simpsons, while the rest of their roster is slated to be active.
It’s a major change from what the Nuggets have been used to all season when factoring in their several injuries to key players lasting multiple weeks.
Nikola Jokic, Cameron Johnson, Christian Braun, Aaron Gordon, and Peyton Watson have all missed significant time at one point or another this season, but against Utah, they’ll have all systems go as they roll into the game on a three-game win streak.
Tip-off between the Jazz and Nuggets lands at 7 p.m. MT in Ball Arena.
Seattle, WA
Harger: Hundreds responded to my Seattle homelessness commentary. Here’s what you said, and what I missed – MyNorthwest.com
Last week, I wrote about the word “homeless” and what it’s hiding. About Ben, who lives in his Jeep with his dog after a divorce and a job loss, ready to work, unable to get help because he doesn’t fit the profile the system was built for. About a woman in a tent in Ballard, severely addicted to fentanyl, found unresponsive twice in one week, turning down shelter every time it’s offered. About a third group: the severely mentally ill, cycling endlessly between the street, the ER, and the jail.
One word covering three completely different crises. One industry getting rich off the confusion.
I was not prepared for what came back.
A listener texted almost immediately to say I had perfectly described the homeless industrial complex. I’ve heard that phrase before. I’d never stopped to really sit with it. But that’s exactly what it is: A system that has organized itself around the problem rather than the solution, where the incentive is to manage homelessness, not end it.
Seattle readers respond: The homeless industrial complex, tiny homes, and a broken housing system
The emails and texts started coming in immediately and haven’t stopped. From people who said they felt seen for the first time. From people living this. From people who have been trying to say exactly this for years and couldn’t get anyone to listen.
Don wrote that the suffering caused by misguided homeless policy is just as real whether the motivation is malicious or simply misguided. He put it better than I did.
“The results are likely worse than what most of us could generate from a lifetime of determined ill-will,” Don wrote.
You don’t have to be cruel to cause real damage. You just have to be wrong and well-funded.
Igor called it “homeless heresy.” Two words. Said everything.
Laurie asked me to keep holding the spending accountable. I intend to.
Tammy told me her friend was given a tiny home and is doing meth inside it. She said the community has a room where residents do their drugs. She thought tiny homes were drug-free. They’re not required to be. That’s exactly what I was talking about. We put a roof over someone’s head, call it compassion, and walk away from the harder problem.
James flagged something I want to look into more closely. Affordable housing programs, he said, require proof of residency going back two years. This makes it nearly impossible for someone who is actually homeless to qualify. He was denied housing himself because his name wasn’t on his brother’s lease, even though that was the only address he had. That’s worth a much closer look.
Seattle homelessness has more categories than I described. A DV survivor showed me what I missed
Andrea is a domestic violence survivor who suffered a serious work injury the same year. She lost her mobility, her housing, and her safety all at once, and ended up back in a home with family members she’d spent years trying to escape. She doesn’t fit neatly into any of the three categories I described. She falls through every crack in the system.
I should have included her situation, and I didn’t. That was a mistake.
I’ve worked on stories with The More We Love, an organization that works specifically with women and children in situations like Andrea’s, and I want to tell her story more fully in the weeks ahead.
Steve spent seven years as a mission coordinator at a Seattle homeless mission in Belltown, interviewing everyone who came in seeking help. He wrote to describe a fourth category I did not address: people in the country illegally using services intended for others. It’s a complicated area, and I’m not going to treat his account as the final word, but it’s worth noting that people working directly in these facilities are seeing things the policy conversations aren’t accounting for.
Sally, a low-income senior who navigated the system herself and now rides Seattle buses regularly, wrote to describe several more categories I had not addressed: LGBTQ+ youth, domestic violence survivors on the run, and the residentially unstable who cycle through evictions and can’t get along in shelter settings. She’s offered to talk, and I may take her up on it.
North Beacon Hill: Open-air drug use, encampments near schools, and letters that go nowhere
Kevin is from North Beacon Hill. He wrote to describe his neighborhood: the parks full of encampments, the open-air drug use and sales, the day cares and schools nearby, the community group writing letters that go nowhere. His council member attended one meeting and didn’t seem particularly interested. The neighborhood is left to document what’s happening and hope someone eventually notices.
I went out to Kevin’s North Beacon Hill neighborhood this week. I talked to him. That report airs early next week, and I think you’ll want to check it out.
Seattle’s homeless policy is failing. People see it clearly. They just needed someone to say it
People aren’t confused about this. They see it clearly. They’ve been seeing it for years. They just haven’t had anyone reflect it back to them without flinching.
Igor called it heresy. Around here, maybe it is. We’ve spent billions. The people sleeping outside are still sleeping outside. The people like Ben who just need a hand up can’t get one. And suggesting that what we’re doing clearly isn’t working is apparently the most controversial thing you can say in this city.
I’m not done with this story. Not even close.
Charlie Harger is the host of on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries . Follow Charlie and email him .
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